Riding Endurance Mountain Biking’s Fine Line Between Insanity and Nirvana

LIVING THE WIRED LIFE

ENDURANCE MOUNTAIN BIKER

Aaron Gulley, 38, is an endurance mountain bike racer who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This past April he set the course record for the Arizona Trail 300, a grueling, multi-day race through the Arizona desert. All photos: Jakob Schiller/Wired

Riding a mountain bike, solo, through hundreds of miles of desert sounds like a special kind of hell. Aaron Gulley has done it several times and says “fun” is a better word to describe the experience.

Even among cyclists, Gulley is a rare breed. He’s a freelance writer by day, but endurance racing is his true passion. It’s a grueling and, yes, dangerous sport that has brought Gulley literally to his knees with food poisoning, dehydration, sleep deprivation and complete physical and mental exhaustion.

And he’s loved every minute of it.

During the day, Gulley is usually in front of a computer because he makes his living as a freelance writer. But he still finds time to train for 20 hours a week and is currently preparing to race in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB in August.

“Everybody thinks it’s suffering,” says Gulley, 38, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “But I often think, ‘What an opportunity.’ I get to be out by myself, riding incredible trails and seeing landscapes that most people won’t ever get to. When you push yourself to a point where you think you can’t push yourself any more, my senses become much more keen. I like that I start to perceive things differently and everything around me is amplified.”

Amplified is the best way to describe Gulley’s cycling. He’s training for the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, a well-known out-and-back race held in Leadville, Colorado, each August. He’s done it a few times already, and his goal is to cut 45 minutes off his time and finish in less than 7.5 hours.

Once he finishes Leadville, he’s got his sights set on a seven-day race in Canada, and maybe down the road, a 750-miler in Arizona or any number of other impressive (or insane, depending on your point of view) endurances races held across the country.

Gulley hasn’t always lived his life two octaves higher than the rest of us.

He grew up riding mountain bikes in Nigeria, where his father worked with an NGO. He and his wife all but courted out on the trails, and he started racing when he was 18. He started racing in two- or three-hour races, but found it wasn’t enough. He didn’t like training so hard for a race that was over before he knew it.

“I kind of say it as a joke, but [endurance races] feel more worthwhile,” he says. “They are more bang for your buck.”

He entered his first big endurance race, 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, in 2008. It didn’t go well. Riders attempt to complete as many laps as possible in 24 hours. Gulley was too fast out of the gate and burned far too much energy. Food became a problem because, as a rookie, he wasn’t clear on how much to eat, and when. Thirteen hours into the race, he bonked, hard, and needed a nap. He was back on the trail a few hours later, but the race was a wash.

“No more,” he told himself.

“That’s the thing about endurance racing,” Gulley says now. “You always say, ‘That was horrible’ and ‘Under no circumstances will I ever put myself through that again.’”

About a month after, Gulley was on the starting line again. There was no way he was going to let that failure sit. He’s like that – super-competitive, but also stubborn. His second race was a 125-miler in New Mexico. He had a physical meltdown well into the race and food was, once again, a problem. But he finished fifth, and was hooked.

“I was drawn more and more to these endurance races because I’m a person who like to take on challenges I ‘m not sure I can do,” he says.

It’s like that with endurance racing – meet one challenge, and you want to outdo it next time around. His biggest challenge has been completing the Arizona Trail 300, an unsanctioned race well-known among the sport’s best riders, held each spring.

“That’s the thing about endurance racing,” Gulley says now. “You always say, ‘That was horrible’ and ‘Under no circumstances will I ever put myself through that again.’”

As the name suggests, the race takes riders 300 miles through the Sonoran desert. It is as grueling as it sounds, and Gulley’s past races were derailed by food poisoning, snow and a GPS malfunction that forced him to quit 15 hours into the race. GPS is essential, and there is no other way to navigate portions of the route.

“I was basically out wandering around trying to find my way and dropped out at the next major road crossing,” he says.

The Arizona Trail 300 is particularly attractive, and challenging, because it is one of a handful of unsupported races. Riders are on their own, riding largely on single-track, with only GPS to guide them. They eat and drink what they can carry or obtain from convenience stores, restaurants and water spigots along the way.

Training is vital — show up at a race like the Trail 300 without having done the work and you’re guaranteed to suffer – but also, relatively speaking, straightforward. You’ve got to put in the miles. Gulley does a lot of training on a road bike because he’s got hundreds of miles of picturesque roads right outside his door. A road bike also lets him measure his power more effectively and is more efficient way for interval training.

He tries to squeeze in 20 hours or training a week, which is a bit easier than you’d think because he writes about cycling gear for a living. His garage is crammed with two-dozen bikes at any given time, most of them loaners he’s testing.

Despite his access to top-shelf gear, his go-to rig is a two-year-old Specialized S-Works Epic 29er with Shimano XTR components, Easton EC90 XC 29″ wheels and a WTB Silverado saddle. He prefers it to the newer hardware in his garage because it’s still as good as anything out there. Everything on the bike has been selected for its simplicity, durability and comfort.

Gulley reviews and writes about bikes so his garage is often stuffed full of loaners that he’s testing.

The list of other essential endurance gear is long, but highlights include:

Assos T_FI.13_s5 Bibs. After the bike, this is his most essential piece of gear because a good pair of bibs reduces the risk of chafing.

Specialized Rime shoes. He likes them because the stiff soles transfer energy efficiently but are still good for hiking over those sections of trail too rough to ride.

Giro Aeon helmet: Every ounce counts when your racing for 300 miles, and the European version of the Aeon weighs a mere 189 grams.

Lupine Betty light. It gets dark in the desert. Really, really dark.

Shimano S70X-PH sunglasses. Eye protection is paramount at all times, and Gulley says these specs have the best photochromic lenses you’ll find.

Food has been among Gulley’s biggest challenges. After years of experimentation and more than a few costly errors, he’s got it (mostly) under control. He tries to consume 250 calories an hour on the trail. For the Arizona Trail 300 he carried four bottles – 3,280 calories total – of Hammer Sustained Energy, a powdered food mixed with water. He also packed 1,250 calories worth of homemade rice bars and another 1,410 calories of energy bars and gels.

Five hours into the Arizona Trail 300, he came upon a convenience store and wolfed down a sandwich, a Diet Coke, chips, brownies and some jerky. He tries to stop at convenience stores along the way to cram down some calories, satisfy any cravings and keep his spirits up.

Although Gulley eats anything he wants out on the course, he’s much more mindful when training. He counts calories, cuts out fatty foods and minimizes the booze. The regimen is meant to improve endurance and minimize weight gain. He typically weighs about 160 pounds, but dropped to 153 for the Arizona Trail 300. That extra weight adds up when your riding 300 miles at a stretch.

This time around, it wasn’t food, but water that presented the biggest problem. Twenty-nine hours into the race, Gulley filled his hydration pack from a hose he found at a state park. He was back on the trail and utterly alone when he took a big swig, realized it wasn’t fit to drink and soon after started vomiting.

“I did think, ‘This could go south really fast,'” he says.

That’s always a risk, and Gulley says his experience as a rock climber has taught him to remain calm when things fall apart. The key is, of course, keeping things together to begin with and avoiding decisions that could lead to a point of no return.

“I always try not to let myself get to a point where I think I’m going to die,” Gulley says.

Gulley knew he was too far out to turn back for fresh water, so he found a shady spot, climbed into his bivy sack and took a quick nap.

“They always say don’t drop out of an endurance race before sleeping on it,” he says.

He awoke feeling strong enough to keep going. He knew he wouldn’t be fast, but also knew he’d get through it.

In the garage, getting ready for a training ride.

After a workout, Gulley makes a smoothie while his wife, Jen Judge, makes dinner. Judge is also an endurance mountain bike racer and the couple all but courted out on the trails.

Gulley works on his bike after a ride through the Zuni Mountains outside of Gallup, New Mexico. Gulley was in the mountains because his wife was going to participate in an endurance race called “24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest” the following day.

“I always try not to let myself get to a point where I think I’m going to die.”

It might seem counterintuitive, but napping is, for Gulley, an important part of endurance racing. Some competitors feel it costs them too much time, so they power through. But he’s among those who argue short breaks keep him stronger over the long haul. In addition to the 40-minute nap, Gulley took three others, one of which was just seven minutes.

Gulley says there is no way to avoid at least a little suffering and one or two problems when you’re on the bike for 50 hours or more. Spend that much time in the saddle and your mind invariably experiences several ups and downs.

“You feel good and then you feel bad and then it comes back around,” he says. “You have to work through it and realize it’s not the end of the world.”

One of Gulley’s biggest challenges has been throttling his competitive drive. Early in his endurance racing career, Gulley was so driven that racing became a job, not something he necessarily enjoyed. Nowadays, he still strives to win, but makes sure he’s enjoying himself. If he’s miserable all the time, he’s probably not racing well.

“If you’re going to push yourself to be out on a bike for two or three days,” he says, “you have to enjoy it.”